Playa Vista is a neighborhood located on 1,087 acres in southwestern Los Angeles, California. Its boundaries are approximately Lincoln Boulevard on the west, Ballona Creek on the north, McConnell Avenue on the east, and Teale Street on the south. It is bordered by the unincorporated enclave of Marina Del Rey to the northwest, by the neighborhood of Playa del Rey to the southwest, by the upland part of Westchester to the east and southeast, and by Del Rey to the northwest. Playa Vista has its own ZIP Code: 90094.
arrived and beginning in the early 1800s, Westchester, including the lowland area now known as Playa Vista, became the site of dairy farms and agricultural fields. In the 1940s, the aviator Playa Vista is located on the former site of the Hughes Airport facility on land that was once part of the Ballona Wetlands. The first inhabitants of the land were the Gabrielino Native Americans. In 1769, European settlersHoward Hughes bought the site and constructed his aircraft plant, runway and hangars. He built his famous Spruce Goose at his incorrectly named "Culver City facilities" - truly located in Westchester, on the site that is now known as Playa Vista. This precursor of today's jumbo jets still holds the record for the largest wingspan of any plane ever built - 319 feet, 11 inches. This eight-engine wooden flying boat was built to hold 700 passengers. Hughes piloted the plane himself on its maiden and only flight. The Spruce Goose only traveled one mile at a height of 70 feet. Over the next 40 years, Hughes Aircraft went on to develop, build and test many successful aircraft designs on this site, which included runways for takeoffs and landings. The Hughes Aircraft company continued manufacturing at the site into the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, Hollywood converted the former Hughes Aircraft hangars, including the one that held the Spruce Goose, into sound stages. Scenes from movies such as Titanic, What Women Want, and End of Days have been filmed on location at Playa Vista.
In 2001, former Los Angeles mayoral advisor and Parks Commissioner Steve Soboroff was hired as Playa Vista's president after finishing out of contention in that year's mayoral contest. Soboroff, described by the Los Angeles Times as a "hard charging businessman," was a driving force behind the Staples Center arena and the Alameda Corridor below-grade rail line. As a mayoral candidate, Soboroff proposed innovative solutions to Los Angeles' traffic problems including building light rail along major freeways. He also proposed breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District and recruiting kids away from gangs using after-school programs.
In 2002, signaling a significant reduction in its ultimate size and scope, Soboroff unveiled new plans for the completion of development at Playa Vista. It is estimated that the plan will result in less than half the number of residential units, a third less office space and nearly 70 percent less retail area compared to the original Playa Vista master plan. Perhaps more significantly, over 70 percent of 1,087-acre Playa Vista will be dedicated to either active or passive open space. This dramatic reduction in development was made possible by Playa Vista’s agreement with the Trust for Public Land that allowed the State of California to purchase the land west of Lincoln Boulevard and north of Culver Boulevard in order to restore and preserve the Ballona Wetlands in perpetuity.
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